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“If there are some in the fridge we sure can,” he said. “Hop up at the table, and I’ll see what fruit we have.”
The girls clambered onto chairs while he raided the fridge and the fruit bowl and grabbed some toothpicks they could use to attach the banana people’s faces, arms, legs, and clothes.
“Okay, girls, we have strawberries, nectarines, apples, raspberries, oranges, and peaches. Oh, and, Becca, you’re in luck, there were some pears in there too.” Sawyer was just setting all the fruit down on the table when something caught his attention outside the kitchen window.
Immediately, his bodyguard senses kicked into high gear.
His gut was telling him that something was wrong.
Without letting his concerns show, he didn't want to worry the girls, he said, “Kinsley, Becca, could you two please go straight into the office, tell Mrs. Kingston that she needs to get all the kids and take them into the playroom.” He hoped the woman would get the message that something was wrong and that as well as gathering the children into one place she would also call 911.
Neither of the girls argued or talked back. They both climbed off their chairs and hurried out of the room while he put his hand on the butt of his gun and unlocked the back door.
When he stepped outside, he didn't see anyone but sensed them.
Someone else was out here.
He hadn't seen anything more than a moving form through the window, but he was pretty sure it was Jay Turner.
That or one of the teenagers sneaking out, but he didn't think that was the case here. The older kids were allowed to do the same things as other kids their age, they had to make sure they told someone where they were going to be, and there was a curfew, but they were allowed to go to the mall, see a movie, or go to the park.
His gut said it wasn't one of the older kids out here.
Carefully he scanned the yard. It was a reasonable size. There were two swings, a slide, a sandbox, and a teeter-totter. There were also three large trees down by the back fence and a grassy area where the kids could toss around a Frisbee or kick a ball.
Since there weren't really very many places to hide, Sawyer headed toward the trees. If he didn't find anyone back here, he’d circle the house in case Jay Turner—or whoever was out here—had already gone around the side of the building. Hopefully, by then the cops would be here.
It wasn't that he didn't think he could handle this on his own. He was just afraid of what he would do to the man when he did find him. Jay had killed his daughter, beaten his wife, and tried on several occasions to kill one of his friends, he deserved a little of his own treatment.
And the man had been hard to catch so far, always seeming to manage to slip away.
Well not this time.
Sawyer circled behind the first of the three trees.
There was no one there.
He was so sure that he’d seen someone.
Had he just imagined it? He’d been on edge the last two days, determined to do whatever he could to make sure Jay Turner didn't kill another of his daughters. He was away from his family just a few days before Christmas and worrying that he wouldn’t be home in time to be there when his kids left milk and cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve and opened their presents Christmas morning.
He was just turning around when something dropped on him.
Not something, someone.
Jay Turner.
The man must have climbed up into the tree and been hiding there waiting for the perfect time to pounce.
Sawyer wasn't letting that man get anywhere near Kinsley.
Fumbling for his gun, he almost managed to get it out when Jay slammed something into his head.
He saw stars.
The shadow above him began to move away.
Ignoring the pain in his head, he managed to pull out his gun, and doing his best to aim it while seeing double, he fired.
